This develops your familiarity with basic principles and procedures. You learn things like how pressure affects your body, how to choose the best gear and what to consider when planning dives.

You complete Knowledge Development on your own, reading each of five sections of the PADI Open Water Diver Manual and watching the corresponding section of the PADI Open Water Diver Video (which also previews skills you'll learn). If you like learning with a personal computer, you can also get the Open Water Diver Manual and Video together as a CD-ROM. You briefly review what you studied in each section with your instructor and take a short quiz to be sure you’re getting it. At the end of the course, you take an exam that makes sure you've got all the key concepts and ideas down.

You can even learn online. After enrolling, PADI’s eLearning system presents you with interactive presentations that include videos, audio, graphics and reading. Short quizzes let you gauge your progress, and review and correct anything you might happen to miss. This lets you move through the program efficiently and at your own pace.

This is what it's all about – diving. You put your classroom knowledge into motor skills. You will develop basic scuba skills in a pool or in a body of water with pool-like conditions. Here you'll learn everything from assembling your gear to clearing your mask underwater while breathing through a regulator. You'll also practice some emergency skills, like alternate air source use. Plus, you may play some games, make new friends and have a great time.

There are five confined water dives, with each building upon the previous. Over the course of these five dives, you attain the skills you need to dive in open water.

After your confined water dives, you and the new friends you've made continue learning during four open water dives with your PADI Instructor at a dive site. This is where you have fun putting it all together and fully experience the underwater adventure under constant Instructor and Divemaster supervision – at the beginner level, of course. You may make these dives near where you live or we can help you plan a trip to a more exotic destination. We can also provide a referral for your Open Water Dives to another PADI dive center at a location where you have a trip already planned. At that dive center a PADI Instructor will complete your certification.